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Many would agree that the height of the 8 bit era gaming rests squarely on the shoulders of Mario 3. In fact, we thought so ourselves. It did what any truly good sequel does by building on what came before but taking it to the next level. Super Mario World for the SNES used the same strategy and is still fondly remembered today.

Recently, I stumbled across a plethora of official art related to the game that I hadn’t known about depicting each of the different worlds (plus the Sunken Ghost Ship, Star World and Special World). It’s similar in tone and style to Mario 3’s strategy guide art but it’s a little more cartoony this time around. It further blurs the line between American cartoons and Japanese Manga art that would go on to be the staple of the series.

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Archie Comics’ Mega Man but it got me thinking besides a few notable exceptions why aren’t there more comic books based on old school video games? It seems like a strange oversight. Perhaps there’s an issue acquiring the legal rights, but never the less here is a hastily assembled list (with a little help from Arthur Harkness) of those that I feel could transition flawlessly.

1. The Final Fantasy Series

Even if you only adapted the first 3 U.S. releases in the series you’d still have enough story to make a killer book. There’s a significant lack of high fantasy books on the shelf to begin with, throw in some incredibly iconic looking characters (Black Mage from FF1 anyone?), some cover art by concept designer Yoshitaka Amano and you got yourself a stew/book. The beauty of it is in the first game the plot is pretty basic, but you could incorporate so many more story points while keeping franchise essentials as part of it. The next two games (especially FF3) boast pretty complex storylines that would fit well if it were adapted.

Welcome , Welcome , Welcome to another edition of suggestions. I know you all look forward to weekly suggestions from myself and the geeks, so let’s get right to it. This week, instead of giving you something to read or something to watch, I am going to go all hardware on you guys (take that as you will, you pervs) and suggest something that is staggeringly underappreciated or just unknown to most people. But first, I am going to ask you all a question. How many people still have working Nintendos and Segas and Super Nintendos? Not many. I know we all have one in the basement somewhere, but most likely it needs to be shaken or hit on the side for it to work properly. It’s a shame because we still want to play our old games, but most of the time we just can’t get the damn system to work. You can’t be too mad though, as that system had previously provided you with hours of entertainment, but it just simply got too old and couldn’t keep up. You wouldn’t yell at your grandfather because he can’t go running with you or throw down on some floor hockey. That would just be rude, but what if I told you there is a way to play those old game cartridges that doesn’t involve you getting an emulator on your PC? You would shit yourselves. Prepare your anuses….for the Retron is coming.

Morning Nerds!

The thing about being a geek that everyone gets is that we like to praise the stuff that we really enjoy, but we love to totally rip apart the stuff we hate. It’s kind of a right of passage for all true geeks in my opinion! Anyway, this week Biff Tannen leads the geeks in a bashing of all those video games that we’ve always hated. You loved our “Best Of Nintendo” a few weeks back, so get ready to enjoy its Bizarro counterpart! So… sit back, relax and have a listen!

Hey Nerds!

For the past few days the Geeks have been counting down their favorite Nintendo games of all time, so this week’s podcast is a roundtable of our all-time Top Ten favorites (and a few other mixed in for good measure!) So sit back, get Nintendo-Nostalgic, and enjoy tales of Video Games’ Past…